A mother bear and two cubs trying to den under a garden shed at a home on Port Coquitlam's north side were destroyed Tuesday after conservation officers made several attempts to trap the animals.
Erin Zukima, a resident of the Salisbury Avenue home, said the bears likely showed up on Sunday and began digging their winter den.
"At first we just saw one bear," she said. "Then my spouse went and checked it out and he was like, 'There's not one, there's also two more cubs.'"
Zukima, who has two young children, said the cubs would scratch on a nearby tree and roll around on the grass while their mother stood by and watched them play.
Conservation officers were soon notified and initially tried to trap the animals with a large tube-like cage that is pulled by a truck. When the vehicle rolled onto the property, however, Zukima said the bears were spooked and ran up a tree.
At that point, in the interest of public safety, conservation officers decided the best course of action was to destroy the animals, she added.
"They tried to do what they could but he had to do what he had to do, unfortunately," she said. "Safety was a big concern."
Meanwhile, Sgt. Steve Jacobi of the BC Conservation Officer Service said the bears should have started hibernating weeks ago but decided not to nap because they had easy access to garbage in the neighbourhood, which provided enough calories for them to keep going.
Jacobi said it's unusual for bears to stay awake this long but it wouldn't have happened without the smorgasbord of garbage on offer in the neighbourhood, south of Lincoln Avenue between Shaughnessy Street and Coast Meridian, where the bears were eventually treed and dispatched.
"These bears were fairly desperate but they were surviving enough," said Jacobi, adding that the sow and two older cubs, likely born in 2010, had been making rounds in the neighbourhood for months. Unfortunately, no one called the Conservation Officer Service, which had no other option but to destroy the bears because relocation isn't possible in the winter and the cubs were too old to be handed over to Critter Care Wildlife Society's rehabilitation centre in Langley. If someone had called earlier, the garbage issue could have been dealt with and there could have been other options for the bears.
"They'll never hibernate in something that's man-made if we made something for them. They need time [to adjust to their new surroundings] even late fall is very difficult." he said, adding that they would have died anyway or tried to return to their old stomping grounds to get food.
He said it's not unusual for bears to den close to homes but it became a safety concern when they tried to den in someone's yard.
The late-winter bear deaths have one local resident frustrated that something wasn't done sooner.
Laura Dupont said she was concerned about garbage and litter being left out at nearby Irvine elementary and contacted the School District 43 in the fall.
"We let down our responsibility in a big way," said Dupont, who says she photographed trash in open garbage cans at the school during the winter break.
But the Irvine principal disagrees that the school is at fault. Darlene Proulx said in an email that garbage is locked in a bin overnight and efforts have been made to clean up litter, trim fruit trees and ensure the school grounds are bear-proof.
"We want to ensure that we do not contribute negatively to this neighbourhood concern," Proulx wrote.
Meanwhile, there have been no complaints anywhere else recently in the Tri-Cities. Coquitlam's urban wildlife co-ordinator, Drake Stephens, said he has had no complaints so far this season.
